Snow and ice triggered multiple crashes involving overturned semis on Interstate 90 near Columbus Wednesday morning, shutting down the highway and stopping traffic for hours.
The Montana Highway Patrol says three semis crashed, blocking both lanes of the interstate near the Reed Point bridge just after 7:30 Wednesday morning.
The crash forced the closure of the highway between Big Timber and Columbus.
Watch Interstate 90 crash story here:
Earlier, a semi rolled over around 3 a.m. between the two Big Timber exits, forcing big rigs and other vehicles into truck stops, including The Fort.
No one was injured in the crashes.
As of 4 p.m., a lane in each direction remained blocked near Reed Point and Big Timber.
The conditions turned the commute into gridlock.
Drivers lined up near the Pilot truck stop in Columbus as they waited.
The roads west of Columbus eventually dried and cleared, but earlier treacherous conditions caused challenges for truck drivers.
"Well, the line was all the way back down around to the hospital because it goes back to the frontage roads, so this was completely, we had trucks on each side," said Renay Kornele, Town Pump cashier.
"We were telling them to stay here, not to go to the back," Kornele said.
And any idea of going around the wreck wouldn't work because the frontage road south of the interstate was backed up, too.
"A lady came in and said that she just had to turn around after sitting on the frontage road for an hour and a half," Kornele said.
"The gentleman that works on the highway said that that bridge always gets slick with the wind," Kornele said.
Regulars who stop at the Sure Stop in Reed Point could not make it into the store.
Truck stops on each side of the closures became the place to find information.
"They're diverting them through here once they got some laying open to get them, and then they couldn't get them back on until the other wreck was cleaned up," said Dogan Lea, who works maintenance and as a cashier at The Fort.
"We'd be busy, constant, you know, coming through, but, sometimes it's not so bad and all of a sudden you get a rush of 50 people," said William Deboever, who also works maintenance and as a cashier.
"We're a very popular place here, you know, being a truck stop," Kornele said. "So yeah, people come in and they think we know everything and we have to kind of figure it out."
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